Ballerine
by desolate butterfly
Summary: [Team Seven AU ficlet] Sakura is tired of being the center that Sasuke and Naruto dance around. Pairings include SasuSaku, NaruSaku, NaruSasu, and NaruSakuSasu implications.
1. Ballerine

Title: Ballerine  
Author: desolate butterfly  
Genre: AU, romance, angst  
Pairings: SasuSaku, NaruSaku, NaruSasu, NaruSakuSasu  
Rating: Pg - 13  
Summary: Sakura is tired of being the center that Sasuke and Naruto dance around.

--

Sakura rests a hand on the barre and begins the paces of her warm-up.

_Demi plié in first. Grand plié. Pointe tendue._

Across the room, Sasuke is practicing his turns, rolling them one after the other in quick succession, so fast that it makes Sakura dizzy to look at him. He never loses his balance. He never twists his body out of alignment. Technically, Sasuke is perfect. He dances with a precision and focus that is unmatched.

_Cambré. Battement glissé. Grand battement._

Over in the corner, the chorus girls giggle and stare at Sasuke's tightly controlled movements, at his strong legs, at the mound between those legs, made obvious by his costume. Sakura blushes and turns her attention back to her exercises, feeling flustered for Sasuke, who never notices the attention he receive from the silly girls at the sidelines.

Sasuke never notices anything. Sakura sometimes wonders if Sasuke would even remember her name if not for the fact that she has somehow wormed her way into the lead role this year and therefore earns the honour of dancing with him. She bends and her fingers brush the ground before sweeping back up into an _arabesque_.

_Balançoire. _

Bursting through the door is Naruto, late again and all apologies. Sakura watches him hastily strip off his sweater and leg warmers and toss Kakashi a sheepish grin before loudly accusing Sasuke of hogging the mirror. Sasuke scowls but moves over enough that Naruto doesn't smack him in the face as he advances through his jumps.

Naruto's jetés are the highest Sakura has ever seen—higher, even, than the jumps Sasuke is able to manage. Technically the blond falls short of his darker counterpoint, but he makes up for that lack of refinement in energy and expression. Kakashi moves to correct the line of Sasuke's shoulders during a _glissande _and Naruto notices Sakura watching.

He winks at her, and she turns her eyes away quickly.

_Pas de cheval. Pointe tendue. Rond de jambe._

On Saturdays and Mondays, Sakura gets to dance with Sasuke. The entire time his hands encircle her waist Sakura feels nervous and elated and victorious all at once. She wonders whether or not Sasuke can feel her trembling underneath his palms when he lifts her smoothly from the ground and sets her back down.

One night, after a particularly gruelling session, Sakura catches Sasuke by the hand and presses her lips to his. She has to stand on pointe to reach his mouth, and it's a little embarrassing how long it takes before Sasuke rests a cautious hand on the curve of her spine and returns the kiss.

After that, it becomes routine to kiss for a few, brief minutes after practice like guilty school children waiting for the bell to ring. Sasuke's kisses are clumsy and just a little rough, but Sakura enjoys them, even if she ends up making the first move more than half the time.

Outside of practice, Sasuke is as cold and aloof as ever, and Sakura figures that he is letting her kiss him because it dispels certain rumours that male dancers always have to contend with, even in this day and age. She can't really bring herself to let it bother her all that much, when Sasuke's body leans into hers, and she can mould her palms into the broadness of his shoulders.

On Tuesdays and Fridays, Sakura dances with Naruto. She doesn't feel the same butterflies in her stomach when he lifts her, but his hands are always warm and she never fears he will drop her, even during the most harrowing throws and dips.

Sakura doesn't know if she approves of Naruto, since he has taken to making comments and jokes in her ear while they dance, causing her to smile or laugh in the most inappropriate moments. She's been scolded by Kakashi more than once about controlling her expressions to suite the dance, while Naruto innocently stood by.

Still, there's something compelling about the boy, and the way he throws himself into the dance as if there's never been anything else but the movement of his body—the movement of his partner's body against his. When he focuses—_really focuses_—on her, Sakura feels as if she is the only woman in the universe. It's an addictive feeling.

This year's production is Swan Lake. Sakura dances the lead, but is painfully aware of the fact that Sasuke and Naruto outshine her in every way. She is just there because Kakashi needs a pretty bauble for the boys to whirl between them, and Sakura fills the part well enough.

There are many different endings to Swan Lake. Kakashi's dance troupe only performs the ones that end in death.

Some nights, Sasuke dies. Some nights, Naruto dies. Sakura dies every night, because the ballet is never kind to women.

_Pas de deux._

After the final curtain, it's time for the cast party. Sakura drinks far too much champagne and stumbles into Sasuke's dressing room just in time to see Naruto push him back against the wall and take his mouth in a heated slide of tongue against tongue. They do not hear her startled gasp, or the muffled noise of the door when she slides it shut again. She's not surprised at all. When Naruto focuses on you, you're the only person in the world.

The next week they begin practice for _Romeo and Juliet_. Sakura let's Naruto's hands linger a bit too long on her hips, and shocks herself by tucking the key to her apartment in his pocket after class.

Tonight, she'll coax Sasuke to her doorstep once more, with gentle kisses and fluttered lashes. Hopefully they won't have to wait too long before Naruto arrives and then the real dance can begin.

--

fin.

--


	2. Pas de Deux

Title: Pas de Deux  
Author: desolate butterfly  
Genre: AU, yaoi, smut  
Pairing: NaruSasu, hints of SasuSaku  
Rating: M for clothed frottage  
Summary: It's the cast party after the final production of Swan Lake and Sasuke's not having any fun. Well, Naruto will just have to change _that_ won't he?

--

It wasn't supposed to happen, except that he'd had a bit too much to drink. He'd been a bit too high—from the satisfaction of another show done and over, and the way his body felt warm and ready to dance another four acts already if he asked it to, and he forgot himself.

It was also Sasuke's fault.

Sasuke's fault, for sulking in the corner with his bottle of beer, looking sour and miserable despite the fact that he'd performed perfectly (like always) and had scouts from goddamn _Paris _crawling up his ass to get a contract. Sasuke, whose long, lean body slouched against the wall with more grace than Naruto could manage after a whole months worth of form training with Kakashi. Sasuke, whose dark hair was falling messily into his eyes and across his neck, making him look more vulnerable then he ought to. Sasuke, who had refused every single offer to dance, though half the chorus girls had tried.

Naruto hadn't seen Sakura try yet, but he supposed it was still early. The last he saw, she was clinking champagne glasses with Ino at the bar.

Still, somebody had to do something about Sasuke.

_'Guess that makes me a somebody.'_

Naruto made his way through the flexing, gyrating crowd of cast members, smiling faintly at the few hoots and hollers he got from some of the familiar faces on the floor. He waved off some hands that brushed themselves hopefully against his hips and shoulders and slipped out into the corner where Sasuke was nursing his drink.

Beside them, a stereo thumped out a rapid dance beat and Naruto felt his pulse jump to match the same rhythm, blood pounding in his head so hard he almost felt dizzy. He hooked an arm around Sasuke's and swung to the side.

The dark-haired boy glared at him and shrugged him off irritably. Naruto only grinned.

"Heeeey, Frosty the Ice Bitch, why aren't you dancing? It's a cast party, don't you think you should, you know, _party_ a bit?"

Sasuke's scowl grew and Naruto found himself focused on the curl of those thin lips, the hint of teeth between them. He leaned forward a bit—it was so _loud_ here, what was Sasuke saying?

"—just fine by myself here, moron. Why don't you go find someone else to annoy?"

Naruto pressed a hand to his chest and staggered back, giving an exaggerated pout.

"Why Sasuke, you know you're my favourite person to bug! Well, except for Sakura-chan, maybe. She looks really hot when she's pissed off. But I guess _you_ knew that already, eh lover-boy?"

Sasuke's face reddened and his back stiffened, right on cue.

"S-shut up, idiot!"

"Or maybe you're too perfect to piss the princess off," Naruto mused. "Must be nice."

Sasuke mumbled something that was lost in the thrumming pulse of the bass line, and Naruto was pretty sure it wouldn't have been all that interesting anyway, so he didn't bother telling Sasuke to repeat himself. Instead, he grabbed the boy by the wrist and started to drag him onto the dance floor.

Sasuke struggled at first, but didn't really accomplish much. He might have been able to lift Sakura with ease, but Naruto would prove to be a much harder mountain to move. Plus the crush of people on the dance floor quickly blocked his exit, and Naruto smiled at the death threats Sasuke's eyes were throwing at him as he led him out into the center of the floor.

"Dance," he ordered, moving his own hips in sinuous rhythm, lifting his arms up above his head in a weak parody of _port de bras_. The unstructured quality of the dance, the heaviness of it, and the smell of sweat and skin in the air, was so intoxicating…so unlike the refined, delicate turns Naruto had taken on stage earlier that day. He loved it.

Sasuke, however, looked like a fish out of water in the midst of the grinding bodies. His arms folded around his chest and he was a stiff as a board, not even a smidgen of the lithe grace he'd shown earlier peeking through. Naruto sighed and slid a hand around Sasuke's waist. The other slapped it away, but he only put it back there again and pulled him closer.

"Geez, you're making _me_ uncomfortable," he said, leaning forward so he could say the words into Sasuke's ear. "Loosen up, will you? Just…_move_."

"How?" Sasuke spat back, hackles raised. "There's no pattern to…_anything_ here."

Naruto laughed, surprised at this partial admission from Sasuke that he, for once, had no idea what he was doing in a dance.

"Sure there is," he said, placing his other hand on Sasuke's hip, spreading his fingers out a bit so they spanned the width of Sasuke's back. "Feel the beat? Just sway like this."

Slowly, he guided Sasuke's hips until they swung from side to side, awkwardly at first, and then with the beat in a steady roll. Sasuke scowled, looking suspiciously at Naruto's feet which were barely leaving the ground to shuffle from side to side. His arms came up to press against Naruto's shoulders, and then dropped again at his sides.

"What do I do with my hands?" Sasuke muttered.

"Well," Naruto drawled, "if you're dancing by yourself, you can raise them up like this—"

His fingers dropped from Sasuke's hips and lifted to run through his hair, and then down to caress his own body, twitching against chest and abs. He checked to see if Sasuke's was watching.

The Uchiha certainly looked like he was paying attention. His eyes were glued to Naruto's fingers.

Naruto grinned to himself and continued. "—or if you're dancing with a girl, you can put your arms around her waist, or her shoulders, or her neck."

He let his hands trail down to brush over his own thighs and laughed at the flush that spread across the other's cheeks. Sasuke started at the sound, and then jerked back, eyes snapping to connect with his. Naruto felt the laughter in his throat die at the strange intensity in that gaze. He swallowed, hard.

"And what if I'm dancing with you?" the Uchiha asked, voice soft enough that Naruto had to strain to hear him over the pounding of the music. "What do I do with my arms then?"

A wave of dizziness struck Naruto and he found himself tilting forward. The buzz of the drink, and the music, and the heat of the people narrowed and focused into white noise as he reached for Sasuke's hands and drew them up to clasp loosely around his own neck. This movement brought the other boy so close Naruto could feel warm breath on his cheek, and Sasuke's eyes swam in front of Naruto's face.

"You uh…you put them here, like that," he gulped, feeling blood rise in his face and up his neck.

"Oh," Sasuke said, and started to move his hips again, in time to the music. Naruto had to bite back a groan at the movement suddenly a whole lot closer than it was before. From under half-lidded eyes he saw Sasuke's smug smirk at the reaction and grit his teeth.

_'So you want to make it a competition, you bastard? Fine. We'll see how well you do.'_

Naruto pulled Sasuke a bit to the side, so that he could slide a leg in between his, slipping a hand to loosely cup the small of Sasuke's back underneath the stretchy material of his shirt, feeling the soft, sweat-slicked skin there. He rolled his hips forward and watched triumphantly as the smug smile dropped from Sasuke's face and was replaced with an O of surprise. He rubbed up a bit with his thigh and dipped Sasuke back, curving the boy's spine in an arch that reminded him of all the times he'd done the same thing to Sakura in class…only without so much leg jammed into her groin. Unfortunately.

"Keeping up, bastard?" he teased, as Sasuke's eyes fluttered shut and his head dropped back to display the corded tendons of his neck.

"Stop that," Sasuke hissed, pushing away again. "You're putting on a show."

Naruto shrugged and grasped Sasuke's hand in his, already missing the warmth of a body against him. "If you want, we could always take this someplace more private."

Sasuke stared hard at him for a few moments, before turning swiftly on his heel and stalking off the dance floor in the direction of the dressing rooms. Naruto watched his ass with an appreciative eye, and then followed.

As far as invitations went, that was pretty poor, but he figured that coming from Sasuke, it was the best equivalent to a come on as he was going to get.

He caught up with Sasuke at the dressing rooms just in time to slam him against the door and catch his lips in a searing kiss. Sasuke squirmed deliciously against him for a while, hands fisting in Naruto's hair so hard it would probably be painful if Naruto wasn't so blissfully unable to feel anything but the heat and softness of Sasuke's lips under his, the utter _wetness_ of his tongue.

He scrabbled for the handle on the door beside Sasuke's hip, and pushed it open, backing Sasuke into the room and only having enough presence of mind to swing the door shut with his foot before lunging at the other dancer. They struggled against each other for a few minutes, neither willing to give up a position of dominance. Sasuke's teeth grazed his ear, and Naruto retaliated by capturing his wrists and stretching them up above Sasuke's head while he set about attacking the Uchiha's neck and collarbone.

Finally, Naruto managed to shift Sasuke over to the opposite wall and lean him against it, mouth sliding frantically over his with small wet sounds. His hands lifted Sasuke by the hips and Sasuke took the encouragement to wrap his legs around him and just ride. He started to thrust his hips, feeling Sasuke's hardness straining through the cloth of his pants against his own burning erection, and a low, guttural moan falling from his lips.

Sasuke had clamped his teeth onto the skin between Naruto's neck and shoulder and looked to be working on drawing blood, not that he minded. The small jolt of pain went right to Naruto's cock and he twitched against Sasuke, increasing the speed of his rubbing and twining his fingers in Sasuke's dark hair.

They moved together, and Sasuke's mouth detached from Naruto's skin to utter a wordless cry as he stiffened in Naruto's arms. From the almost pained expression on his face, and the way his nails were digging viciously into his biceps, Naruto guessed that he had just made the other boy come. The rush of power at that feeling was enough to trigger his own orgasm, and Naruto clutched Sasuke to him and groaned his release into the other's neck, feeling a warm wetness spread across the front of his pants. He shuddered against Sasuke, and let him slide them both down the wall until they sat, breathless, legs tangled together in a sweaty mess.

"Wow," Naruto gasped, trying to catch his breath. He shot Sasuke a wicked leer, lifting his eyebrows teasingly. "For someone who keeps on claiming he's not gay, you sure know how to kiss a guy."

The Uchiha, who had, up until that point, been looking rather relaxed and boneless, stiffened once more, and Naruto almost regretted saying anything. Almost.

"We're drunk," Sasuke intoned flatly, rising from the floor and moving smoothly to the door. "This won't happen again."

And then he was gone. _'Probably off to sulk in his little corner again until it gets late enough that he can claim to be tired and go home.'_

Naruto frowned and then rubbed his fingers absently against his lips, remembering the press of Sasuke's lips there, and the sharpness of teeth on his shoulder. His fingers travelled down and found the mark, the small indentations that would probably bruise up really nicely.

"Hm…maybe I'll wear that scoop-necked sweater to class on Monday and we can see how many times I can make the Ice Prince blush in the space of an hour."

Naruto chuckled to himself and adjusted his pants around his waist.

He really needed a shower.

--

fin.

--


	3. Breaking You In

Title: Breaking You In  
Author: desolate butterfly  
Genre: AU, humour, romance  
Pairings: NaruSaku, SasuSaku, NaruSakuSasu, InoShikaChou hints  
Rating: PG - 13  
Summary: Sakura tells Ino her super secret method of breaking in toe shoes. Naruto helps by way of demonstration.

--

Ino limped over to the basin Sakura was steadying and slipped her reddened feet into the water, sighing as a few ice chips slid around and between her toes. She wiggled them blissfully and leaned her head on her chin.

Beside her, Sakura grinned and readied her kit of bandages, tape, and rubbing alcohol.

"We're going to have to pop some of those blisters," she said. "They won't last our next practice anyway."

Cringing, Ino shoved her toes deeper into the ice water and rolled her leggings higher up on her knees. Her feet were already beginning to swell, the boxy edges of her toes sporting bright red blisters.

"Argh, I _hate_ new toe shoes," Ino groaned, pulling her hair out of its bun and coming her fingers through the kinked yellow mass. Sakura just smiled and removed her own set of pink satin shoes, deftly untying the ribbons and setting them on the floor with a soft thud. She was pulling on a pair of soft flats when Ino reached a hand over her shoulder and snatched up one of the pointe slippers and examined the freshly darned stitches lining the edge of the platform.

"Hey, give that back," the pink-haired girl exclaimed, tossing a frown Ino's way when the girl held the shoe out of Sakura's reach. "Ino!"

"Hold your horses, I just want to see something," Ino said, sticking her tongue out. Sakura sat back with a huff and lifted Ino's left foot out of the basin, getting to work on the biggest of the blisters which had already broken and was bleeding a little.

Ino winced as the area was blotted with rubbing alcohol and then wrapped with tape.

"Stupid new shoes," she griped, flexing the shank of the shoe in her hand a bit. "Your feet seem to be doing fine, though. These shoes are only a bout a week old, same as mine. How did you manage to break yours in so fast?"

"Secret technique," Sakura grunted back in reply, taping up the last sore on Ino's left foot and moving on to the right. "Passed down through generations. Can never be revealed or I'd be executed by the clan elders."

"Sakura, your mom is a baker and your dad works in construction," Ino pointed out, eyebrow lifting. "Come on, spill. My feet are dying here!"

"Alright, alright. I just hammer them against something really hard, and then soak them in warm water for a bit."

"Pfft, I've done that. I slammed this pair in a door hinge and beat them against the wall until the neighbours complained about the noise."

Sakura stifled a laugh and stripped off her leg warmers, setting the heavy wool aside. "You need to whack them against something harder than that, Ino-pig."

"What's harder than cement, forehead girl?"

As if on cue, the door to their dressing room burst open and a tall, lanky blond in a hideous orange sweater and black leggings, blue headband barely keeping his bangs swept clear of his eyes.

"Naruto," Sakura snapped, drawing back at his entrance, "I thought I told you not to come in here when we're dressing!"

"Sorry babe," the boy grinned, not looking apologetic in the least. "I forgot. But it doesn't really matter, does it? I've seen you in less than that."

His eyebrows waggled suggestively and Sakura found herself fighting a blush. Beside her, Ino snorted in unrestrained laughter and got an elbow to her ribs for her trouble.

"Ow…don't be so violent, forehead girl! No wonder Sasuke goes out with you. He's such a masochist," Ino grumbled, rubbing her side.

Sakura quickly snatched her shoe back from Ino's hand, eyes flashing dangerously. Behind her, Naruto knelt on the floor and looped an arm across her shoulders.

"Speaking of Ice-Dick, he's been working at the barre since class stopped," Naruto muttered in her ear. "Even the piano guy called it a night twenty minutes ago. Let's see if we can drag him outside for a hot dog or something. If he practices those stupid fouettés anymore, his ass is going to fall off."

"And what a tragedy _that_ would be," Ino murmured dreamily under her breath.

The warmth of Naruto's chest at her back, and his arm around her shoulders made Sakura flush a bit and almost forget to glare warningly at him for talking bad about Sasuke. Ino watched them with a knowing smirk on her face, and Sakura quickly shrugged Naruto off and turned back to stuffing her kit inside her exercise bag.

"No clubbing tonight, Naruto," she warned, slipping a sweater over her leotard and readjusting the short skirt around her waist. "We have an early morning tomorrow and if you show up to class hung-over again Kakashi's going to cut your balls off."

"I can handle Kakashi-sensei," Naruto bragged, but he cupped a hand protectively over his privates any way.

Sakura's eyes inadvertently followed the motion, and, to her extreme mortification, Naruto noticed where she was looking. He leered.

_'Please, please for once in your life keep your mouth shut.'_

"Okay, so clubbing's out. Betcha I can think of some other night time activity that would be fun."

Sakura's eyes narrowed dangerously, but Naruto missed the warning signs, because Ino had broken out into laughter and put in her own question of, "Does it have something to do with eating hot dogs? 'Cause I think forehead-girl's been trying to watch her weight…"

"_Ino._"

Naruto opened his mouth again. Sakura knew this wouldn't lead to anything good.

"Hey, I'll have you know that Sakura-chan has no complaints about my wiener—OW!"

Naruto fell forward as Sakura's toe-shoes smacked harshly against the crown of his head with a loud crack. He sprawled on the floor for a moment, dazed as Sakura shoved the slippers in her bag and started to walk towards the door.

"And that's how you break in new shoes," she tossed over her shoulder to Ino as she reached the door.

Ino laughed and pulled some sneakers on her own feet, nudging at the prone form of Naruto until the boy stopped groaning into the carpet and picked himself up off the floor.

"Harder than cement, eh?" she murmured.

In the meantime, Naruto was rushing off after Sakura who had already started down the hall.

"I'm sorry princess, really…"

"Don't talk to me."

"But Ino started it—"

"I don't care. You _finished_ it. I'm going to get Sasuke and we're going to a movie. _Alone_."

"That's not fair! The bastard doesn't even know how to grope properly in theatres."

"Naruto…You really want to die, don't you?"

"Ah, Ice-Dick! We were just talking about you…"

"_Naruto!_"

As the voices fade down the hallway, Ino turned back to her own shoes with a sigh. She hobbled over to the dressing table to pick up her bag when a knock at the door startled her.

A scowling face poked into the dressing room.

"Geez, Ino what's taking you so long? Chouji and I have been waiting for an hour, and we're hungry."

"Just a minute Shika, I'm putting on my lipstick."

Shikamaru frowned and leaned back against the door, hands behind his head. He eyed the ceiling crossly.

"If we're waiting for you to get beautiful, we'll be here all night," he muttered.

Ino twitched and her gaze shifted to the toe shoes still on the floor by the basin of ice. Maybe she'd have to give Sakura's method of breaking in shoes a try. It couldn't hurt. _Her_, anyway.

"Oh, Shikamaru…could you come here please?"

--

fin.

--


End file.
